Letters From Copenhagen: "Never, Ever Drink Coca-Cola Again"

In an impromptu press conference, two Coca-Cola employees publicly denounced their employer at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. They lambasted the soda giant's environmental hypocrisy and human rights abuses. The employees went on to obtain pledges from conference attendees to never, ever drink Coca-Cola products again.

This would have been a supreme act of personal integrity in the face of multinational corporate reprisal had the two supposed employees been the real thing. The press conference was in fact staged by the activist troupe Yes Men--the same people behind the oil-from-corpses ploy and the Survivaball.The two PR "employees", acting under the names Frank Guerrero and Stacia Van Wooten were able to solicit 20 pledges from conference goers to stop their consumption of Coca-Cola. The pledge reads:

"I, [name], with respect for crimes against people and the planet, from this day forward, for the rest of my living days will never, ever, drink Coca-Cola again until the Coca-Cola company ceases and entirely stops stealing the water from communities in India and stops union-busting in Colombia and ceases and desists entirely from relentless and absurd greenwashing like a 'bottle of hope.'"

While the stunt reeked of the absurd, the claims of the Yes Men (who are often women), probably possess more veracity than those of Coke's CEO Muhtar Kent, who was speaking a block away earlier in the day about the company's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint (taking the toxic, sugary, disposable container clad beverage would be one possible strategy).